Xtify Location Based Platform
Today, Xtify launches the beta version of its location based platform to software developers, free of charge, on Android, Windows, Blackberry, and Symbian phones.
The idea is that Xtify provides client software free of charge. The Android, Windows, Blackberry and Symbian software uploads location information to Xtify servers. Website developers use Xtify’s REST API and incorporate location into their existing website. Xtify contacted me so I dug a bit deeper.
My first thought was that Xtify is similar to the Yahoo Fire Eagle location broker. However, Xtify is different in that it provides an end to end solution. It provides the client applications as well as the server side. Fire Eagle relies on developers to create the clients for the respective platforms.
The Xtify clients can use multiple methods to extract location. On Android phones it uses GPS, cell tower, or WiFi. On the other platforms, Xtify uses the GPS chip in the phone or estimates your location based on the nearest cell tower.
I asked Xtify if it’s possible for mobile developers writing applications on the phone to use a library rather than having to ask the user to download a separate client. This isn’t currently possible. I was told that Xtify’s primary function is to location enable websites and that device specific mobile applications will already have access to location through APIs on the device. However, I think Xtify is missing an opportunity here in that mobile social applications residing on the phone could also publish location to Xtify for use by other mobile applications running on others’ phones.
How is Xtify going to make money from this? Xtify offers a free base level service and a premium service. The base level service delivers a user’s latitude and longitude for free. The premium service helps developers use, manipulate and audit the data they are receiving. For example, Xtify will offer premium services associated with the proximity algorithms. Xtify has the ability to handle significant loads and identify in real time the proximity of User A to User to B as well as the proximity to pre-defined points of interest.
Xtify provides an interesting free solution for developers who don’t want to build their own location based platform. It’s great for hobbyists or ‘proof of concept’ applications where it’s undesirable to build a location based platform. I’d be more wary about using it for commercial applications without some kind of commercial agreement with Xtify. Why? Well, phone platforms change and evolve and the client software will inevitably need updating and extending to new platforms (incidentally, iPhone is currently under development). Similarly, commercial applications will need to consider other aspects such as service level agreements, support, data backup and, depending on the country, legal aspects such as data sharing and data protection.
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